discussion NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 2GB Review Comment Thread

[SKYMTL]

Now that I've had time to browse multiple benchmarks to see the different ideas each review came up with, I would like to pick a bone with you:



I would say this is an overstatement and a bit opinionated of a statement as (with any game) we find some games just favour the 7970 due to drivers or optimizations. It's mostly accurate to say the 670 trades performance blows with the 7970 but saying it runs dead even is something I chose to say otherwise. If you wish to keep your statement thus, I'm smart enough to process the information on my own and make my own decision, but it just doesn't sit well with me to read it thus.



My personal opinion is that "it will be few and far between the scenarios where gamer will want to chose Tahiti over the 670."

As always, I always suggest to people to use multiple credible review sites to process the information as no site has the perfect benchmarking process for every game :thumb:

Thanks for sticking to the points at hand.

You do bring up a good argument but I was referring to the chart within the conclusion which showed average performance across games. Again, and as I said before, I am willing to concede that I should have made that point more obvious.

But this brings me to another point: people should go through the entire review and not base their opinion upon the conclusion, which is typically generalized because it is impossible to pick apart performance numbers in every game within the allotted space.

 

[SKYMTL]

Nvidia terminated GTX 580 production in late Q1 it seems. So I don't understand how stocks could dry up when HD 7950 launched. Both of us don't know newegg stocks for each of the GTX 580 cards. So I would not speculate.

Nvidia terminates GeForce GTX 580 production
NVIDIA Stops Production of GeForce GTX 580 | techPowerUp

The problem here is that you are quoting Fudzilla. TPU got their info from Fudzilla.

I know you don't want to hear this but the truth of the matter is that NVIDIA stopped high end Fermi production for the GeForce line right before the New Year. The event that some sites talk about was the work stoppage for Workstation and HPC derivatives. They just got their info wrong. :thumb:

I loaded Operation Swordbreaker and played again on my Radeon HD 6950 with Ultra MSAA 4X at 1080p. I waited till the initial loading and non interactive portions completed and fps stabilized in fraps. I saw till I got to the discussion table fps in low 30s and sometimes high 20s. Similarly later in the level in the first fight in the parking garage fps was in the 30s and occasionally went to mid 20s where cars were blowing up with smoke and fire effects and there was lot of fighting onscreen.
I played the Rock and Hard place mission where you come down the road after the fight in the dense forest region. And you face more enemies in the open region and I could see similar fps around early 30s dropping sometimes to mid to high 20s . I seriously didn't feel that Rock and Hard place was far more demanding than the fight in the parking garage in operation swordbreaker. I can call it at best case similar.

I appreciate your effort. Very few will go out and actually back up their assertions with their own tests. Kudos! :thumb:

If you look at the 4X MSAA fraps graph HD 7970 (950 Mhz) and GTX 680 they tail each other very closely except the last 20% where the GTX 680 is ahead. Also to my observation GTX 680 is more spiky (indicative of Turbo padding the average fps) than Radeon HD 7970.

That may very well be but the Boost technology is a feature so regardless of it "padding: the average, it is still doing its job. However, I have noticed in the vast majority of games that it won't jump around all that much (at most 5%) within a game.

It would help if you include a fraps graph of the tests as atleast as a downloadable zip file, if you can't clutter up your webpages with those graph charts.

I'll look into doing that in the next launch review.

Personally, I think that the HD 7970 is still a great card and has potential. It is based on an architecture with which AMD is learning the same hard lessons as NVIDIA did with Fermi. However, I think we will all agree with the fact that its architecture isn't up to the challenge of running with NVIDIA right now. It needs a revision that cuts back but doesn't eliminate its pointless (for the consumer market), power hogging GPGPU abilities and then AMD may have a good chance to recapture people's business.

 

[raghu78]

Personally, I think that the HD 7970 is still a great card and has potential. It is based on an architecture with which AMD is learning the same hard lessons as NVIDIA did with Fermi. However, I think we will all agree with the fact that its architecture isn't up to the challenge of running with NVIDIA right now. It needs a revision that cuts back but doesn't eliminate its pointless (for the consumer market), power hogging GPGPU abilities and then AMD may have a good chance to recapture people's business.

I have a slightly different opinion. Nvidia and AMD have been making their GPUs more GPGPU friendly. Nvidia GF100 / GF110 clearly indicate that. Its just that there is no Nvidia GK100. Maybe the same efficiency concerns (perf /watt) and heat concerns will be there with a similar GPU (compute + gaming ) from Nvidia,a GK110 aka GTX 780. Nonetheless I feel GPGPU is the most important industry direction and the only way to get out of the Intel stranglehold of the industry. There are more and more GPGPU enabled apps and I think thats the right direction for the industry. Anyway everyone has the right to their own opinions. So I am ok with yours.

 

[Adzsask]

Can I get an email when this debate with ragu sauce is over? thread is totally ruined, and I am tired of reporting the same person on the same thread over and over...I will be back when there is more intelligent conversation about the GTX 670, not AMD VS Nvidia to the death bullcrap.

 

[sswilson]

Can I get an email when this debate with ragu sauce is over? thread is totally ruined, and I am tired of reporting the same person on the same thread over and over...I will be back when there is more intelligent conversation about the GTX 670, not AMD VS Nvidia to the death bullcrap.

Due to multiple complaints from long time members about this thread being taken off track I've created a new thread for our latest member to play in.....

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...ussion-nvidia-geforce-gtx-670-2gb-review.html

Hopefully this will allow him to have his say while allowing the rest of us a chance to get on with discussing the review.

Never let it be said that HWC shuts down legitmate questioning of our testing methodology, but on the other hand there must be a line drawn once such discussion interferes with the enjoyment of other members.

Thanks for your understanding.

 

[BukitHedd]

All of the benchmarks use Sandybridge E setups. I have an i7 2600k at 4.4ghz. It's all listed in my system specs.

Can I expect similar results once my 670 SC arrives compared to everyone's benchmark machines?

 

[Pabz0r545]

I would assume so. Isn't the SB-E platform more so for quad channel memory and mutli card setups?

 

[AkG]

Im NOT the expert on GPUs....but it is my understanding that yes you will get SIMILAR results as long as A) the game is not CPU bottle-necked b) your are not bottle-necked by ram (8GB should be more than enough for now!!) c) you are talking about ONE gpu and not SLI'ed 670s....as then the extra lanes of SB-E come in handy.

 

[Razamatraz]

Got two on launch day.....They fly, but I don't like the fan profile...had to build a more aggressive one and now they are too loud....oh well, turn up the speakers.

Probably a bit CPU limited now...anyone know when the buldozer replacement launches? I hope it really ups its game.

 

[EmptyMellon]

Got two on launch day.....They fly, but I don't like the fan profile...had to build a more aggressive one and now they are too loud....oh well, turn up the speakers.

Probably a bit CPU limited now...anyone know when the buldozer replacement launches? I hope it really ups its game.

There will always be some aftermarket options later on that could allow you to replace the stock fan.

[As for a Bulldozer replacement, Piledriver for desktops is rumoured to be here in Q3 2012.h34r:]